Artist Narrative

The Benedictine priest Virgil Michel is widely regarded as one of the founders of the liturgical movement in the United States. Fr. Michel believed that liturgy creates Christian community; that it is, in fact, the source and center of all Christian life. He taught that social justice cannot be separated from liturgy. Central to his theology was the revival of the concept of the church as the body of Christ. Eventually many of his ideas were incorporated into Vatican II’s constitution on the liturgy.